Analytic Girl
AnalyticGirl.com
Apparently...
Apparently Data isn't the only thing that has gotten BIG lately!
The Consumerization of...well...Everything! And What it Means to You
Last year I was fascinated with the concept of the consumerization of the B2B buyer. This was brought on by many things - one of which was an awesome article by Ryan DeShazer from 2011 on this very topic.
And after joining IBM and seeing the findings of the 2012 CMO Survey, it is obvious we are living in the time of the Empowered Customer.
Yes internet has truly empowered the customer - but the customer is no longer just the girl checking out the best prices on of a pair of noise cancelling headphones on her phone while at BestBuy.
The customer is the newly married couple searching for a new credit union because they are sick of the fees of the big banks. The customer is the CIO/CTO who needs to figure out if he should upgrade his data center or move to the cloud.
Where is the first place these new customers turn? Of course, the internet.
And what does that mean to you - your business?
It means a few things:
Internet Presence
A few years ago it may have been common for a bank or a B2B company to have a website that was just an online brochure - or no web presence at all. That is no longer the case today. If you want to compete in today's world, you need an interesting, engaging, informative website. Heck, you may even need a transactional website.
Findability
And this website will do you absolutely no good if no one can find you. SEO and PPC are acronyms you will need to embrace.
Analytics!
Finally there will be new companies, even new industries, who will need to understand the value of analytics. Retailers have done a great job of working with analytics companies to push the envelop and really evolve web analytics into a super-robust, super-useful necessity to running their business. Now industries like finance, insurance and other B2B industries will get to take advantage of these advancements. I'm not saying they will start there - but they will get there. More later on getting started with web analytics....
Experience
Obviously at the heart of successful business is a commitment and focus to providing exceptional customer service. The great news about the empowered customer is that praises for these experiences are abundant and common online. The terrifying reality is the flip side to that.
Attribution
Taking an analytics a step further. It is a proven fact that it is unlikely that a person is going to go from being completely unaware of your business and brand to converting all with just one click. Attribution matters - but that is another topic for another day
And after joining IBM and seeing the findings of the 2012 CMO Survey, it is obvious we are living in the time of the Empowered Customer.
Yes internet has truly empowered the customer - but the customer is no longer just the girl checking out the best prices on of a pair of noise cancelling headphones on her phone while at BestBuy.
The customer is the newly married couple searching for a new credit union because they are sick of the fees of the big banks. The customer is the CIO/CTO who needs to figure out if he should upgrade his data center or move to the cloud.
Where is the first place these new customers turn? Of course, the internet.
And what does that mean to you - your business?
It means a few things:
Internet Presence
A few years ago it may have been common for a bank or a B2B company to have a website that was just an online brochure - or no web presence at all. That is no longer the case today. If you want to compete in today's world, you need an interesting, engaging, informative website. Heck, you may even need a transactional website.
Findability
And this website will do you absolutely no good if no one can find you. SEO and PPC are acronyms you will need to embrace.
Analytics!
Finally there will be new companies, even new industries, who will need to understand the value of analytics. Retailers have done a great job of working with analytics companies to push the envelop and really evolve web analytics into a super-robust, super-useful necessity to running their business. Now industries like finance, insurance and other B2B industries will get to take advantage of these advancements. I'm not saying they will start there - but they will get there. More later on getting started with web analytics....
Experience
Obviously at the heart of successful business is a commitment and focus to providing exceptional customer service. The great news about the empowered customer is that praises for these experiences are abundant and common online. The terrifying reality is the flip side to that.
Attribution
Taking an analytics a step further. It is a proven fact that it is unlikely that a person is going to go from being completely unaware of your business and brand to converting all with just one click. Attribution matters - but that is another topic for another day
What is Your Company's Attitude Towards Analytics?
I put this graphic together a few years ago for a presentation I gave to a group of B2B Marketers.
The idea was that with the 'consumerization' of the B2B buyer, it was a good time for B2B companies to start thinking differently - specifically more like traditional B2C companies, with a focus on an engaging, possibly even transactional web site and along with this, a focus on web analytics.
I figured the best place for these companies to start their focus on web analytics was to understand where their organization fit into this chart. It would be unsurprising if they were in one of the earlier stages. A few years ago many B2B websites were simply online brochures.
Fast forward a few years to now... the concept of B2B consumerization is mainstream. Many B2B websites have been redesigned to be informational, interactive, engaging, and many even offer eCommerce now.
I am happy to say, now many B2B companies are working to improve their attitude to analytics.
And, it seems that consumerization has spread beyond just B2B. It is everywhere - financial services, professional services, even education. But more on that another day.
The idea was that with the 'consumerization' of the B2B buyer, it was a good time for B2B companies to start thinking differently - specifically more like traditional B2C companies, with a focus on an engaging, possibly even transactional web site and along with this, a focus on web analytics.
I figured the best place for these companies to start their focus on web analytics was to understand where their organization fit into this chart. It would be unsurprising if they were in one of the earlier stages. A few years ago many B2B websites were simply online brochures.
Fast forward a few years to now... the concept of B2B consumerization is mainstream. Many B2B websites have been redesigned to be informational, interactive, engaging, and many even offer eCommerce now.
I am happy to say, now many B2B companies are working to improve their attitude to analytics.
And, it seems that consumerization has spread beyond just B2B. It is everywhere - financial services, professional services, even education. But more on that another day.
Online Marketing Success - Blackjack or Roulette?
Recently I finished Jeffrey Ma's book, 'The House Advantage.' Fascinated by all things data-driven, I was interested to learn the history of the famous MIT blackjack team who used data, math and process to beat the casinos at blackjack. The book is awesome, not only does it provide this history, it also is a great business book for folks who may not yet be data-embracers.
So how does this relate to marketing success? Well, the reason that blackjack can be 'beaten' is because there is a set number of cards used. Once the card is used, it is gone. It is what I call a controlled environment. Roulette, on the other hand, is completely random. There is no math nor process that could be used to 'beat' it.
With blackjack, you have the data, so with a solid process and discipline to follow the process, you have success. Roulette is data irrelevant because the outcome is completely random. It is a chaotic environment.
Marketing is by no means a controlled environment, but it does not have to be chaos. Successful marketers have data, discipline and process. My advice - be smart, think like a card counter, use data, process and discipline to stack the odds in your favor.
So how does this relate to marketing success? Well, the reason that blackjack can be 'beaten' is because there is a set number of cards used. Once the card is used, it is gone. It is what I call a controlled environment. Roulette, on the other hand, is completely random. There is no math nor process that could be used to 'beat' it.
With blackjack, you have the data, so with a solid process and discipline to follow the process, you have success. Roulette is data irrelevant because the outcome is completely random. It is a chaotic environment.
Marketing is by no means a controlled environment, but it does not have to be chaos. Successful marketers have data, discipline and process. My advice - be smart, think like a card counter, use data, process and discipline to stack the odds in your favor.
Real Time Web Reporting, Really?
This post took a slight detour from it's original concept after spending some time actually looking at the content available in Google Analytic's relatively new beta of Real Time reports. I'll start with the original idea and then move on to the new thoughts tomorrow.
Real time reporting is a waste of time.
It creates a useless distraction and an incomplete picture. We all know now that last click reporting is flawed. This is because of the concept of latent conversions, meaning not everyone who buys or converts on your site does it on their first visit. Latent conversions are particularly important as people tend to be less impulsive online. Because it is so easy to do just a little more research, people tend to be more pragmatic when shopping online.
Reporting that is based on attribution can show how big of an impact latent conversions make to your site.
In the new version of Google Analytics, the Top Conversion Paths report (under Standard Reporting, Conversions, Multi-Channel Funnels) shows the impact - the percent of conversions that take more than one visit, as well as the dollar value.
So real time reporting has no context. It is just a snapshot of what is happening on your site right now. It creates a potentially misleading picture of what is happening that can lead to some incorrect decisions because it doesn't have any concept of who is returning now to purchase and who will come back later and purchase.
Real time reporting is a waste of time.
It creates a useless distraction and an incomplete picture. We all know now that last click reporting is flawed. This is because of the concept of latent conversions, meaning not everyone who buys or converts on your site does it on their first visit. Latent conversions are particularly important as people tend to be less impulsive online. Because it is so easy to do just a little more research, people tend to be more pragmatic when shopping online.
Reporting that is based on attribution can show how big of an impact latent conversions make to your site.
In the new version of Google Analytics, the Top Conversion Paths report (under Standard Reporting, Conversions, Multi-Channel Funnels) shows the impact - the percent of conversions that take more than one visit, as well as the dollar value.
We can see the impact is significant. And this is not an example of an expensive product. The average order is less than $70. Yet it still takes over 40% of all visitors who purchase more than one visit to commit to the purchase.
Real Time Reporting, Really? - Part 2
So, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually took a look at the real time reporting in Google Analytics. You see, my experience with real time reporting - or the request for it - was based on working at ClickTracks. The occasional customer would complain that the data was not real time, ugh (see last week's post).
The real time information in GA is not about conversions. It is simply geography, referrer and site content. This information can be cool and interesting. I remember when email marketing was first getting popular 1,500 years ago, okay, well maybe 10 years ago. I was working with a client to send out their first email blast. As soon as I hit 'Send', we logged into the reports.
It was fun seeing, in real time, how many people were opening the email and then clicking. Fun, but kind of a distraction. There was not much that could be done with that information.
The real time information in GA is not about conversions. It is simply geography, referrer and site content. This information can be cool and interesting. I remember when email marketing was first getting popular 1,500 years ago, okay, well maybe 10 years ago. I was working with a client to send out their first email blast. As soon as I hit 'Send', we logged into the reports.
But the possibility of what you can do with the Google Analytics information borders on the downright creepy.
The good news is you can immediately see how
effective an email blast, targeted campaign or social media campaign is
and update the content accordingly. And knowing the geography, referrer and
content that visitors are looking at, gives opportunities to publish and
update hyper-relevant content or offers.
A Blast From the Past
The dilemma - In late November I made a commitment to post at least once, hopefully twice, a week. So you would think this week, having time off from work I would have had tons of time to blog. I didn't. I'm not sure how, but I filled the week with chores. And now it is Friday and I haven't posted at all.
The solution - Dust off an ancient blog I launched several years ago and let's see if it is still valid.
Here's and oldy, but somewhat still a goodie:
The Many Ugly Faces of Click Fraud
It seems the buzz around click fraud has certainly died down. Googling 'click fraud' brings back many articles from 2006. But the recent articles show a much more insidious version of click fraud. Yikes.
As always, as soon as the search engines figure a way to get a handle on a problem, hackers find an even nastier way to exploit the problem.
A study from last year puts click fraud in Q4 of 2010 around 19%. That is slightly higher than what it was when I initially wrote the post (back in 2006). Unfortunately since Click Forensics acquired and became Adometry, I have not seen a click fraud study for 2011.
The conclusion: Despite the search engines finding ways to fight click fraud, it is still a problem. So I guess the original post still stands.
The solution - Dust off an ancient blog I launched several years ago and let's see if it is still valid.
Here's and oldy, but somewhat still a goodie:
The Many Ugly Faces of Click Fraud
It seems the buzz around click fraud has certainly died down. Googling 'click fraud' brings back many articles from 2006. But the recent articles show a much more insidious version of click fraud. Yikes.
As always, as soon as the search engines figure a way to get a handle on a problem, hackers find an even nastier way to exploit the problem.
A study from last year puts click fraud in Q4 of 2010 around 19%. That is slightly higher than what it was when I initially wrote the post (back in 2006). Unfortunately since Click Forensics acquired and became Adometry, I have not seen a click fraud study for 2011.
The conclusion: Despite the search engines finding ways to fight click fraud, it is still a problem. So I guess the original post still stands.
Even More Sh*t My Data Says
A funny little recap of the history of this blog subject.....
- It started as a draft on 10/17/2010. There was no content, just a title.
- I had actually written the content of the post in a notebook while on the beach earlier that summer.
- Back then, especially when I originally wrote the blog in the notebook, a few things made it relevant
- Attribution (measurement beyond 'last-click' and the topic of my first post on this subject), which a lot of the content was about, was just becoming a popular topic and
- $#*! My Dad Says was a popular Twitter feed turned into a sitcom starring William Shatner.
My Most Popular Pages are..... or My Most Popular Content is.............
Why might this be sh*t?
The 'Most Popular Pages' report in your web analytics show what people are finding the most on your site.
Here are five reasons why pages may show up in this report as popular, but really may not be what your visitors WANT to find.
1 - The most prominent content
Most everyone knows that people don't read a lot of words online.
This heat map shows how people scan content on web pages. So if your content is prominent, it is probably popular. But does that mean it should be the most popular?
Stay tuned for reason #2.
Even More Sh*t My Data Says, Continued...
Continuing on from last week's post about why the pages that appear in your Most Popular Pages report may not be as popular as you think....
#2 - It's not that popular, it's just old.
This could especially be true if you are looking at reports for a long period of time. The page (or download or post, etc.) that shows up at the top of the most popular list, may just be what has been up there the longest.
#3 - It's not that popular, it's just well-optimized.
This happened to me a few years ago. I post I wrote about measuring word of mouth traffic got re-posted a lot and wound up being well optimized for a topic that was popular for a while. Until that blog post eventually got retired (years after it was so popular), it continued to get a lot of traffic.
Coming up tomorrow, the final two reasons.
